Need Fishing gear advice

[Azee]

Hi Guys,

Being honest, i am an amateur when it comes to fishing but have spent quite a lot on fishing to minimal success but the motivation is still high lol

I am looking to buy a Rod + reel from Fishing r us tomorrow as they have a deal on.

I fish land based( No boat lol ) most at botany bay or Toms ugly bridge.

Can you please suggest me a decent Rod + reel which i should buy out of these below?

I use fresh bait not plastics. Usually prawns or squids.

Rods:

1 - Abu Garcia Ray rex

2 - Abu garcia Veritas

3- Penn Allay spin rod

4- Penn Mariner

5- Rapala maxwell

6- Storm Gomuku

Reels:

1- Abu garcia Pro max

2- Rapala maxwell

3- Abu garcia Blackmax

[Rebel]

Welcome aboard.

Go to the shop and talkto the guys and tell them what type of fishing you want to do.

You can go to the Fishraider search engine, there is plenty of info. on there.

Good luck.

Cheers.

[anthman]

Rebel is right, you should tell the shop what fish you are chasing and how you fish (land based + baits) and they can suggest a combo. It's not just about brands - it's also about length and weight rating.

If you are fishing those spots it sounds like you are lobbing baits a distance? If so, you'd be looking at something like a 9ft, maybe 8kg+ rating and at least a 5000 sized reel (leaning towards 6000 min). From those spots, the biggest catch would be a decent jewie and maybe the random shark or two. Otherwise you'd be looking at typical bread and butter species - in which case lighter would be preferable (e.g. 7ft 3-6kg and 3000 sized reel) for a middle ground otherwise a standard bream combo. For distance make sure you use braid instead of mono - infact you might get some instant improvement by simply going to braid on your existing rod and reel if you haven't already switched over.

[frankS]

Personally I would advise against a learner fisho using braid. Braid is unforgiving and sometimes even somewhat experienced fisho's have a hard time getting used to braid. Mono is far the better choice, in my opinion.

Also I would be looking for some used gear, you can often pick up some nice quality gear for much less money from places like trash and treasure, garage sales etc. Avoid hock shops as you need to know what you are buying or you could end up paying more than new price. Buy good quality 2nd hand gear rather than rubbish new gear.

Don't rush into things. The fish are still going to be there next month etc.

Frank

[anthman]

3 minutes ago, frankS said:

Personally I would advise against a learner fisho using braid. Braid is unforgiving and sometimes even somewhat experienced fisho's have a hard time getting used to braid. Mono is far the better choice, in my opinion.

Also I would be looking for some used gear, you can often pick up some nice quality gear for much less money from places like trash and treasure, garage sales etc. Avoid hock shops as you need to know what you are buying or you could end up paying more than new price. Buy good quality 2nd hand gear rather than rubbish new gear.

Don't rush into things. The fish are still going to be there next month etc.

Frank

Good point franks, braid can be quite tough to use depending on your experience! Going off the info provided it sounds like some level investment has taken place so just took a guess that there might be some familiarity there. Having said that, you can always get some cheapish braid from eBay to play around with - not too quality stuff but acceptable for a beginner and bread and butter fish.

[blaxland]

Mate its an open ended question but set budget and buy in that, entry level combos are cheap i.e less than $50 but good enough to see if you enjoy fishing. I still catch fish on a hand line mostly bait.

 

[Koalaboi]

Throwing money at expensive fishing gear can be a real trap for a beginner. 

I found that over time I have learned  how to look after tackle by breaking it...I'm glad I did not rush out and spend  too much at first. I do now have some quality gear but not super expensive. I like to build my own rods and that can save a bit of money as long as you have the patience and interest.

I also think that the quality of the tackle is only ever going to be as good as the fisher using it. Personally I struggle to see the point in spending hundreds of dollars on a rod. You'd have to have lots of money to do that. The advice above to try looking for second hand gear is good. There's heaps online at the usual places.

The kind of fish you are after and where you fish are also important. Are you looking to be able to deal with fish over or under 5kg? Will you have to cast long distances? Do you wish to flick some soft plastics?

My general purpose rod for estuary fishing would be about 7 to 8 feet long and fairly light using a 2000 to 2500 reel teamed up with 8lb to 10lb braid with a monofilament leader. I'd be looking at chasing fish like bream, whiting, tailor, salmon, trevalley and flathead.

Braid is a little more difficult to use than mono (especially tying knots and undoing tangles) but, it casts so much better and is much more sensitive to bites.

Bigger fish will need a heavier outfit but a light rod like this will handle the majority of fish you are likely to hook into.

Good luck.

 

KB

 

[campr]

As a beginner you probably don't really know what you will be fishing for so hard to advise you.  I would recommend a 2kg to 4kg rod between 6ft6 and 7ft 6 leaning towards the longer with a 2500 or 3000 real.  4kg line would suit and any heavier will cut back casting distance.  Braid is good but complicates things needing to learn fg knots, neading a mono leader etc.

This outfit will cover your bread and butter species as well as casting plastics for flathead and squid fishing.  Even if you move on to bigger and possibly better speciies you will still nead an outfit like this for general fishing and bait collection.  I'm a confessed tackle junkie and would have about 5 like this.  Ron